Newsletter: Summer 2018
Welcome to the seventh edition of the autism@icn newsletter. At the end of June we finished this year’s set of research studies - thank you to everyone who came to the ICN to take part. There were lots of different studies this year with seven researchers running studies, see ‘Latest Findings’ to read about some of the results.
As many of you will be aware, there was been some significant changes in the law concerning how organisations deal with people’s data. Please read our new Privacy Notice. It describes why and how we collect and use personal data and provides information about your rights.
To hear more about the latest news from autism@icn, follow us on Twitter.
What do you think?
If you have any comments on the newsletter, for example, what is good about it or what can be improved, please email your feedback to [email protected].
The autism@icn newsletter aims to highlight events related to autism that are taking place (or have taken place). If you have anything you want to include in the next newsletter, please email [email protected].
Latest findings
Working out how others are feeling
Is my friend happy? Is my partner upset with me? Is my brother annoyed again? We often try and work out how other people are feeling and to do this we can use different types of information. One type of information comes from the person, for example, we can look at their facial expression or the language they use. Another type of information comes from the situation, for example, if we know someone has just passed an exam or their driving test we might expect them to be happy.
Paul Forbes, working with Antonia Hamilton, was interested to see how we use these different pieces of information when trying to understand how people feel. Specifically, they were interested to see what happens when there is a mismatch between the information we get from the person and the information we get from the situation. For example, if we know someone has done worse than expected in an exam but they are smiling, how happy are they?
Paul asked autistic and non-autistic adults to watch videos of some students receiving their exam results and asked participants to judge how happy the students were. Sometimes the students did better than expected and looked happy or they did worse than expected and looked sad. These were the ‘congruent’ videos which means the information from the person and the information from the situation matched up. However, during the ‘incongruent’ videos, there was a mismatch between the students’ exam results and their facial expression, for example, they did worse than expected but looked happy (or vice-versa).
Autistic and non-autistic participant judged the students’ happiness the same for the congruent videos. However, on the incongruent videos, autistic participants placed more weight on the situation (whether the students had done better or worse than expected in the exam) and placed less weight on the their facial expression (whether they looked happy or sad). Interestingly, the autistic and non-autistic participant showed no differences in their ability to correctly identify the facial expression of the students.
“These results are really fascinating. There has been a long debate over whether autistic people show differences in their ability to identify different facial expressions. The results of this study suggest that autistic people, like non-autistic people, can identify whether a facial expression is positive or negative. However, in ambiguous situations – like when someone has done worse than expected on an exam but looks happy – some autistic people may place more weight on the situation, rather than someone’s facial expression, when judging how they feel, ” said Paul.
New ways of measuring ‘executive functioning’
Two master’s students, Shasoty Hossain and Pernilla Andersson, were interested in exploring ‘executive functioning’ in autism. Executive functioning refers to a group of behaviours which includes maintaining attention on a task, organising and planning, and shifting from one task to another. Several studies have suggested that some autistic people may show differences in certain aspects of their executive functioning. For example, some autistic people report difficulties when organising their time or keeping track of where they left their possessions.
“Many of the tasks used to explore executive functioning are done on a computer and can be quite long and boring for the participants. We wanted to see whether we could come up with some new and more interesting ways to measure these cognitive processes,” said Shasoty.
As many of you will be aware, there was been some significant changes in the law concerning how organisations deal with people’s data. Please read our new Privacy Notice. It describes why and how we collect and use personal data and provides information about your rights.
To hear more about the latest news from autism@icn, follow us on Twitter.
What do you think?
If you have any comments on the newsletter, for example, what is good about it or what can be improved, please email your feedback to [email protected].
The autism@icn newsletter aims to highlight events related to autism that are taking place (or have taken place). If you have anything you want to include in the next newsletter, please email [email protected].
Latest findings
Working out how others are feeling
Is my friend happy? Is my partner upset with me? Is my brother annoyed again? We often try and work out how other people are feeling and to do this we can use different types of information. One type of information comes from the person, for example, we can look at their facial expression or the language they use. Another type of information comes from the situation, for example, if we know someone has just passed an exam or their driving test we might expect them to be happy.
Paul Forbes, working with Antonia Hamilton, was interested to see how we use these different pieces of information when trying to understand how people feel. Specifically, they were interested to see what happens when there is a mismatch between the information we get from the person and the information we get from the situation. For example, if we know someone has done worse than expected in an exam but they are smiling, how happy are they?
Paul asked autistic and non-autistic adults to watch videos of some students receiving their exam results and asked participants to judge how happy the students were. Sometimes the students did better than expected and looked happy or they did worse than expected and looked sad. These were the ‘congruent’ videos which means the information from the person and the information from the situation matched up. However, during the ‘incongruent’ videos, there was a mismatch between the students’ exam results and their facial expression, for example, they did worse than expected but looked happy (or vice-versa).
Autistic and non-autistic participant judged the students’ happiness the same for the congruent videos. However, on the incongruent videos, autistic participants placed more weight on the situation (whether the students had done better or worse than expected in the exam) and placed less weight on the their facial expression (whether they looked happy or sad). Interestingly, the autistic and non-autistic participant showed no differences in their ability to correctly identify the facial expression of the students.
“These results are really fascinating. There has been a long debate over whether autistic people show differences in their ability to identify different facial expressions. The results of this study suggest that autistic people, like non-autistic people, can identify whether a facial expression is positive or negative. However, in ambiguous situations – like when someone has done worse than expected on an exam but looks happy – some autistic people may place more weight on the situation, rather than someone’s facial expression, when judging how they feel, ” said Paul.
New ways of measuring ‘executive functioning’
Two master’s students, Shasoty Hossain and Pernilla Andersson, were interested in exploring ‘executive functioning’ in autism. Executive functioning refers to a group of behaviours which includes maintaining attention on a task, organising and planning, and shifting from one task to another. Several studies have suggested that some autistic people may show differences in certain aspects of their executive functioning. For example, some autistic people report difficulties when organising their time or keeping track of where they left their possessions.
“Many of the tasks used to explore executive functioning are done on a computer and can be quite long and boring for the participants. We wanted to see whether we could come up with some new and more interesting ways to measure these cognitive processes,” said Shasoty.
Shasoty and Pernilla along with their supervisor, Paul Burgess, came up with seven different tasks. For example, one of the tasks involved selecting which objects to pack for different activities, such as a trip to the beach, and another task involved copying patterns to draw different shapes. “There was lots of variation in participants’ performance and this variation seemed to be greatest for the autistic participants who tended to do very well on certain tasks but find other tasks more challenging,” said Pernilla.
“The next step is to try and measure participants’ brain activity during these tasks using a technique called functional near infrared spectroscopy and see if participants’ differences in behaviour can be related to differences in brain activation,” added Paul Burgess.
Measuring synchrony at the theatre
In a recent study, funded by UCL's Grand Challenges Adolescent Lives scheme, Jamie Ward, a researcher in Antonia Hamilton’s group, explored the use of wearable sensing as a way to research social interaction of autistic children during a live, interactive theatre performance. This was part of an ongoing collaboration autism@icn has with Flute Theatre, a theatre company which performs Shakespeare plays with autistic children.
“The next step is to try and measure participants’ brain activity during these tasks using a technique called functional near infrared spectroscopy and see if participants’ differences in behaviour can be related to differences in brain activation,” added Paul Burgess.
Measuring synchrony at the theatre
In a recent study, funded by UCL's Grand Challenges Adolescent Lives scheme, Jamie Ward, a researcher in Antonia Hamilton’s group, explored the use of wearable sensing as a way to research social interaction of autistic children during a live, interactive theatre performance. This was part of an ongoing collaboration autism@icn has with Flute Theatre, a theatre company which performs Shakespeare plays with autistic children.
The goal was to record the children's social engagement as they took part in a theatrical workshop that was specifically designed to enhance their social skills. The children and actors wore small sensors on their wrists to track their movements. This allowed the researchers to measure how synchronised the movements of the children were with each other and with the other actors. This is called interpersonal movement synchrony and is one way to measure social engagement.
Across 3 live performances of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which included 6 actors and 10 autistic children, the researchers demonstrated the feasibility of the approach.
“We show that by visualising each child's engagement over the course of a performance, it is possible to highlight subtle moments of social coordination that might otherwise be lost when reviewing video footage alone. This is important because it points the way to a new method for people who work with autistic children to be able to monitor the development of those in their care, and to adapt their therapeutic activities accordingly,” said Jamie, who will present the findings at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers in Singapore in October.
Across 3 live performances of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which included 6 actors and 10 autistic children, the researchers demonstrated the feasibility of the approach.
“We show that by visualising each child's engagement over the course of a performance, it is possible to highlight subtle moments of social coordination that might otherwise be lost when reviewing video footage alone. This is important because it points the way to a new method for people who work with autistic children to be able to monitor the development of those in their care, and to adapt their therapeutic activities accordingly,” said Jamie, who will present the findings at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers in Singapore in October.
Spotlight on...
The autism@icn team is a diverse group of researchers interested in understanding autism. In each newsletter we highlight the role of one of our team members. In this issue, it’s Ishita Chowdhury.
Ishita recently started her PhD under the supervision of Dr Sarah White having previously completed with master’s at the ICN. During her PhD, Ishita will investigate how people understand other people’s minds and how this might be different in autism. Ishita is especially interested in ‘deception detection’ – this is the ability to recognise when other people are lying.
Fun fact: Ishita loves reading fiction – she once read for 30 hours straight without sleeping!
For more information about the autism@icn team, please click here.
The autism@icn team is a diverse group of researchers interested in understanding autism. In each newsletter we highlight the role of one of our team members. In this issue, it’s Ishita Chowdhury.
Ishita recently started her PhD under the supervision of Dr Sarah White having previously completed with master’s at the ICN. During her PhD, Ishita will investigate how people understand other people’s minds and how this might be different in autism. Ishita is especially interested in ‘deception detection’ – this is the ability to recognise when other people are lying.
Fun fact: Ishita loves reading fiction – she once read for 30 hours straight without sleeping!
For more information about the autism@icn team, please click here.
Events
Jo Moss receives a grant
Jo Moss, a senior research fellow at autism@icn, has been awarded a grant from The Baily Thomas Charitable Fund which will begin in September. This will investigate the behavioural and cognitive profiles of autism within genetic conditions, such as Cornelia de Lange Syndrome and Fragile X Syndrome.
New autism research coordinator - Roser Cañigueral
Paul Forbes, who has been autism research coordinator since 2014, is leaving UCL and autism@icn in September to start a new job at the University of Vienna. Roser Cañigueral will be taking over the role of autism research coordinator. Roser is a PhD student in Antonia Hamilton’s lab and some of your may have met her during some of the research days.
Publication highlight
Risk it or play it safe?
Jo Moss receives a grant
Jo Moss, a senior research fellow at autism@icn, has been awarded a grant from The Baily Thomas Charitable Fund which will begin in September. This will investigate the behavioural and cognitive profiles of autism within genetic conditions, such as Cornelia de Lange Syndrome and Fragile X Syndrome.
New autism research coordinator - Roser Cañigueral
Paul Forbes, who has been autism research coordinator since 2014, is leaving UCL and autism@icn in September to start a new job at the University of Vienna. Roser Cañigueral will be taking over the role of autism research coordinator. Roser is a PhD student in Antonia Hamilton’s lab and some of your may have met her during some of the research days.
Publication highlight
Risk it or play it safe?
You have a choice. Either I give you £5, or, I toss a coin - if it is heads I give you £10 but if it is tails you win nothing. Which option do you chose? Do you take the safe £5 or do you ‘risk it’ in the hope of winning £10?
Sarah White and Paul Burgess were interested in investigating how people make these types of decisions. Specifically, they wanted to see what types of strategies people use. For example, do people tend to stick with one option (e.g. always picking the safe option), or do they tend to switch between the two options?
In their study, autistic and non-autistic participants played multiple rounds of a game where they had a choice between a ‘safe’ option, which would guarantee them £1, or a ‘risky’ option, where they could possibly win more (e.g. £2 or £3) but there was also a chance they could win nothing.
Overall, there were no differences in risk taking between autistic and non-autistic participants so autistic participants were just as likely to pick the risky option compared to non-autistic participants. However, autistic participants tended to be more consistent in their choice of option. For example, if they chose the safe option on one round, they were more likely to pick the same option on the next round. Whereas, non-autistic participants tended to switch between the safe and risky options more often.
“There are two types of decision making strategies. An exploration strategy involves trying out different approaches when making decisions, whereas, an exploitation strategy involves deciding upon one strategy and then sticking with it. When playing the game in our experiment, autistic participants were more likely to use an exploitation strategy - so once they had decided upon a strategy they stuck with it. The next step will be to see whether these findings can help us understand how autistic people make decisions in their everyday lives,” said Sarah.
Here is a link to the original paper.
The paper is:
Wu, H. C., White, S., Rees, G., & Burgess, P. W. (2018). Executive function in high-functioning autism: Decision-making consistency as a characteristic gambling behaviour. Cortex.
For a complete list of publications from the autism@icn group, click here
If you would like a copy of any of these publications please email [email protected]
Sarah White and Paul Burgess were interested in investigating how people make these types of decisions. Specifically, they wanted to see what types of strategies people use. For example, do people tend to stick with one option (e.g. always picking the safe option), or do they tend to switch between the two options?
In their study, autistic and non-autistic participants played multiple rounds of a game where they had a choice between a ‘safe’ option, which would guarantee them £1, or a ‘risky’ option, where they could possibly win more (e.g. £2 or £3) but there was also a chance they could win nothing.
Overall, there were no differences in risk taking between autistic and non-autistic participants so autistic participants were just as likely to pick the risky option compared to non-autistic participants. However, autistic participants tended to be more consistent in their choice of option. For example, if they chose the safe option on one round, they were more likely to pick the same option on the next round. Whereas, non-autistic participants tended to switch between the safe and risky options more often.
“There are two types of decision making strategies. An exploration strategy involves trying out different approaches when making decisions, whereas, an exploitation strategy involves deciding upon one strategy and then sticking with it. When playing the game in our experiment, autistic participants were more likely to use an exploitation strategy - so once they had decided upon a strategy they stuck with it. The next step will be to see whether these findings can help us understand how autistic people make decisions in their everyday lives,” said Sarah.
Here is a link to the original paper.
The paper is:
Wu, H. C., White, S., Rees, G., & Burgess, P. W. (2018). Executive function in high-functioning autism: Decision-making consistency as a characteristic gambling behaviour. Cortex.
For a complete list of publications from the autism@icn group, click here
If you would like a copy of any of these publications please email [email protected]